India’s Leander Paes and Purav Raja advanced to the second round in the men’s doubles at the U.S Open Championships, defeating Serbian pair of Janko Tipsarević and Viktor Troicki in straight sets. Paes and Raja put up a clinical performance in their 6-1, 6-3 win over their Serbian opponents. This is Paes and Raja’s first partnership in a Grand Slam event.
It was curtains for Rohan Bopanna and Sania Mirza, who crashed out of their respective events. Bopanna, paired with Uruguay’s Pablo Cuevas were handed a defeat by the Italian team of Simone Bolelli and Fabio Fognini 7-5, 4-6, 4-6 in the second round of the men's doubles event. “We played a very good team, a Grand Slam winning team.
We played really well in the first set. But the last set was tough, going down two breaks. It was a crucial hold and we missed it,”. Sania Mirza, who began her mixed doubles campaign on seeded second, lost to power duo Jelena Ostapenko and Fabrice Martin 7-5, 3-6, 6-10.
Both are, however, still in the tournament - Bopanna will play the first of his mixed doubles match with Canadian Gabriela Dabrowski and Mirza will look to move on to the next round of the women’s doubles with her partner Peng Shuai from China.
India’s Divij Sharan who was paired up with No. 66 Andre Begemann lost 4-6, 4-6 to Spaniards Feliciano Lopez and Marc Lopez.